All My Children AMC: The Prospect Park Era (old production thread)

[SFK]

I'd like to know how familiar the new EPs are with these shows (of course we know about SBH), did they ever watch in the final ABC years and did they review tapes when they were hired by PP? What, in their opinions, were these shows lacking? On the other hand, what was there "too much of"? What are their visions for AMC and OLTL and what do they hope to bring to these phoenixes?

[AllMyDaysatGH]

Amazing questions!

One more...Since were in online territory now will the citizens of PV & Llanview be able to freely say the F word and call each other bitches & hoes? (AKA - Are the shows able to push past the limitations they had on broadcast in terms of dialogue/content? And will they even attempt to?)

[Jonathan]

Thanks!

You mean like this: "I am Erica Kane, and you are a Fuc King beast!"

[Scotty]

I e-mailed you a couple.

And we need Nigel back....tell them that.

[PeterAKer]

Scotty,

I think Peter Barlett will be back as Nigel Bartholomew-Smythe the Buchanan Butler and I also see Cheryl Hulteen back as Winifred the Chandler Maid.

[Scotty]

I hope Peter Bartlett does come back.

I would really like it if they could get Michael Storm to pop in a few times again as Dr. Larry Wolek...that would be great.

[PeterAKer]

Scotty,

Totally agree with you we need Michael Storm back as Dr. Larry Wolek and hopefully on a recurring notice especially for Hospital scenes and other scenes.

Note:

Dr. Larry Wolek is the second longest character in OLTL History who has been in every decade except the 2010's.

[SFK]

I think Michael Storm lives out on the left coast these days, but it would be great to work him in if only for an episode or two (or to usher in a grand niece/nephew of Viki's).

[Scotty]

Yeah, he lives out in L.A.. I was just looking at his FB page. But even an episode or two would be fine with me.

And Peter you are right.....the character of Larry has been around for a long time. Hard to believe that Michael Storm was the third actor in the role....even replacing his own brother in the part.

[Pine Charles]

Ha.

We could sleaze up most of Erica's famous lines......

"Pine f*cking Valley isn't exactly the corner of Hollywood & Vine."

"I don't want to be down anywhere with the rest of you; I wanna be f*cking special and I'm going to be.''

''I am Erica Kane...I am an American Beauty... men f*ck to me like moths to a flame!''

''Well, my f*cking goodness.''

[jfung79]

Catching up on the day's posts ... Love how excited Debbi Morgan and everyone has been on set, and how well they are being treated by PP! Love that they did a Harlem Shake, shows the high morale.

I find the pic of the Hunter guy kind of gross -- abs too ripply.

Great news about Lee Merriwether/Ruth!

Should go without saying I am in the camp that wants the P&G soaps back. Also Procter and Gamble Productions did care about the soaps for many years, even if the parent company didn't. It wasn't just some moneymaking thing. The final years are not a reflection of the quality and the brand that being made by Procter and Gamble once meant in the soap world (though I think GL was good up until almost the end, right before the move to Peapack, and had a good finale too -- I would dispute anyone who thinks it should have died in 2002).

PGP was great about training the next generation of writers, actors, and production ... It didn't just leech off of the training of others to make a short term profit. DAYS today could almost be termed the last Procter and Gamble soap, it's so heavily staffed with writers who started their careers with Procter & Gamble, and it's so darn good! Prospect Park has also tapped a lot of people with affiliations with Procter and Gamble for their production staff.

My question for Errol for AMC would be, if there are any decisionmakers in production there, how did you decide who to approach and who not to from the final cast? Why no Madison, Frankie, Scott, Asher, Krystal, Marissa, Caleb, Jackson?

[JackPeyton]

Exactly.

AMC was terribly written and hard to watch due to ZENDULL THE GREAT AND POWERFUL SUPERCOUPLE eating the show alive. They took that show hostage and basically held it so until the end. Those final months were thankfully a bit less. Ill never forget the glorious, brief moments of AMC actually getting to breath when Kendell was in a coma. They were so awfuly written and they were the show.

Or... you could just not watch them and save yourself from being ill.

[alexisfan07]

I LOVE IT. Now I want to see clips of all the quotes.

[Angela]

I agree, but when you blame a character though without noting the writing it doesn't seem exactly sensible either. I mean blame in the over-dramatic format of "this one/that one (fictional characters) killed the show" not in the format of watching storyline and going "what a one-note jerk-off" or something rather reasonable like that.

I really didn't like Lorraine's Broderick writing those last 6 months and it was due to the writing for David and David's storyline with raising the dead - and it's arguable that it was as arguably unpopular as the writing for "Kendall" and "Zach" and "Ryan" as the ratings didn't budge much even with a ton of returns. For a while, while the rumors were going on about Prospect Park trying another relaunch, part of me was hoping it wouldn't work out because I hadn't really enjoyed the show in years and I hadn't really missed the show while it was off the air. I think that was inappropriate of me in retrospect; it was: "I don't care anymore. Who cares about anybody else?" And I'd have felt a lot more inappropriate if I added that my feelings are or were that was "David's fault" - instead of the writing for David - because I despised him and his storyline the last 6 months of the show. After a while, I thought to myself there's an opportunity to reboot the story-lines and characters on the show and I will hold out hope it's for the better. Even if it's not, it's great that a lot of people will be put to work and that this was even attempted again.

[Jonathan]

I loved the Project Orpheus storyline. It was definitely "out there" but it also made perfect sense, given David's history as an unorthodox doctor (he invented Libidizone), the helplessness he felt when he couldn't save the one person most important in his life (Leora), and his prior history of bringing people back from the dead (Maria and Greenlee).

The storyline really served to fix and undo the two most wrongful deaths of the past, namely Dixie and Stuart. Those are legacy characters that NEVER should have been killed off by McTavish and Pratt.

In my opinion, Project Orpheus was the best umbrella story to bring closure to David's character and involve the rest of the cast.